{"id":14454,"date":"2012-11-30T12:36:04","date_gmt":"2012-11-30T19:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14454"},"modified":"2012-11-30T12:36:04","modified_gmt":"2012-11-30T19:36:04","slug":"bahrain-reforms-stuck-in-reverse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14454","title":{"rendered":"Bahrain Reforms Stuck in Reverse"},"content":{"rendered":"

INSIGHT: Bahrain Reforms Stuck in Reverse<\/strong>
\n29 November, 2012 – By Brian Dooley – Middle East Voices<\/p>\n

Outside of Bahrain government supporters, it\u2019s hard to find anyone who thinks the country\u2019s reform process is going okay.<\/p>\n

To mark last week\u2019s anniversary of the publication of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), the report ordered by the King of Bahrain into human rights violations in early 2011, the regime evaluated its own progress. It insists it has made great strides \u201cto complete the legislative framework required to consolidate the rule of the law, protect public freedoms, respect human rights, promote security and stability across the nation, strengthen the democratic march and maintain national unity.\u201d<\/p>\n

insight hrf INSIGHT: Bahrain Reforms Stuck in ReverseDespite that claim, those of us who have witnessed Bahrain\u2019s police using excessive force and its sham court trials know there is often a chasm between the country\u2019s PR version and reality. That is why the Kingdom\u2019s response on the BICI anniversary was met with disappointment and frustration \u2013 but not surprise \u2013 inside and outside the country. The Bahraini government\u2019s claims to be promoting freedom of expression, protecting defendants\u2019 rights and holding to account those responsible for torture is wholly unconvincing to those of us closely following what\u2019s happening there each day.<\/p>\n

Human Rights First and other international NGOs knew the government would present a positive gloss on its record, but the irrefutable consensus from the world\u2019s leading human rights organizations is that things have gotten worse in recent months, not better.<\/p>\n

Some of the protests have taken on a violent edge, with police and a minority of protest\u0435rs involved in regular clashes. Some protest\u0435rs are throwing gasoline bombs and other missiles at the police. Evidence of police using excessive force, including large amounts of tear gas, continues to be reported. Just in the last few weeks, the Kingdom has banned all public gatherings, sent several people to jail for criticizing the King on Twitter, intensified attacks on civil society figures and stripped 31 Bahrainis of their citizenship.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo senior official has been prosecuted for the thousands of arrests or held accountable for those who were tortured in custody.\u201d \u2013 Brian Dooley, Human Rights First<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just NGOs who are frustrated with the lack of reform in Bahrain. Bahrain has drawn criticism from other governments and international bodies, too. \u201cWe are concerned by some of the recent decisions taken by the Bahraini Government, particularly on human rights,\u201d said British Foreign Minister Alistair Burt. A senior U.S. State Department official observed, \u201cWhat\u2019s unfortunately happened, on accountability, on the hardest issues, is the government has not followed through. \u2026 We see people held in prison, prosecuted for demonstrating a year and a half ago, and there\u2019s still not been meaningful police reform.\u201d The United Nations is dispatching a human rights team to Bahrain to examine the situation next week.
\n…source<\/a><\/p>\n

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INSIGHT: Bahrain Reforms Stuck in Reverse 29 November, 2012 – By Brian Dooley – Middle East Voices Outside of Bahrain government supporters, it\u2019s hard to find anyone who thinks the country\u2019s reform process is going okay. To mark last week\u2019s anniversary of the publication of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), the report ordered more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[1062],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14455,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14454\/revisions\/14455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}